In Hearthstone, there are several cards with effects that take control of an opponent's minion such as:
- Mind Control – Take control of an enemy minion.
- Mind Control Tech – Battlecry: If your opponent has 4 or more minions, take control of one at random.
Despite the wording, these two effects work differently–Mind Control Tech allows you to immediately attack with the stolen minion, but Mind Control does not.
Which mind control effects allow you to attack immediately and which ones do not?
Best Answer
Only those limited to one turn.
Mind Control and Mind Control Tech both take control of a Minion permanently. This is regarded by the game's rules engine as that Minion newly joining your army and thus follows the same attacking restrictions as a Minion you summon or play from you hand. That means, unless it has Charge, it can't attack that turn.
Shadow Madness takes control of a Minion for one turn only. This would simply not do much if the Minion didn't receive Charge implicitly. Actually, there has been quite a discussion about the decision not to write it on the card (supposedly to keep it simple), but it seems Shadow Madness is intended (and probably handled internally) to give Charge to the Minion.
From a logical point of view, this exception makes sense because the card would do very little without that mechanic (notably, it would work the same way it does now with Charge Minions, and might get a dangerous Taunt Minion out of the way). Seeing as this could theoretically be intentional behaviour, though, we could well see the card reworded in the future if and when cards are released that do exactly this. For the time being, it's safe to assume that cards which take control of a Minion only for one turn give that Minion Charge implicitly.